[131.02] The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer

D. N. Burrows (Penn State University), Swift Team

Swift is a NASA gamma-ray burst MIDEX mission that is in
development for launch in 2003. It is a multiwavelength
transient observatory for GRB astronomy. The goals of the
mission are to determine the origin of GRBs and their
afterglows and to use bursts to probe the early Universe.
Swift will also perform a survey of the hard X-ray sky to a
sensitivity level of ~0.6 mCrab. A wide-field camera will
detect hundreds of GRBs per year to 5 times fainter than
BATSE. Sensitive narrow-field X-ray and UV/optical
telescopes will be pointed at the burst location in 20 to 70
sec by an autonomously controlled "swift" spacecraft. For
each burst, Swift will determine arcsec positions and will
perform optical/UV/X-ray/gamma-ray spectrophotometry.
Measurements of redshift will be performed for many of the
bursts. The instrumentation is a combination of superb
existing flight-spare hardware and design from XMM and
Spectrum-X/JET-X, and development of a coded-aperture camera
with a large-area (~0.5 square meter) CdZnTe detector array.
The spacecraft bus and two of the three instruments have
been delivered to NASA and are being integrated at Goddard
Space Flight Center, with the final instrument delivery
imminent. Key components of the mission are vigorous
follow-up and outreach programs to engage the public and
astronomical community in Swift.

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